Publication history
Ryan Choi first appeared in DCU: Brave New World and was created by Gail Simone. Choi, as described by DC solicitations, is "a young hotshot professor who's filling the extra spot on Ivy University's teaching staff... and who inadvertently ends up filling the old Atom's super-heroic shoes". [1]
In a Facebook post from 2017, Simone claimed that Ryan Choi was entirely her creation: "Grant Morrison did NOT create Ryan Choi. I envisioned him, developed him and named him. I was given some rough story ideas by Grant, I am sure they were brilliant, but I didn’t read them. My entire Atom pitch was lifted from a pitch I wrote for Impulse that did not get used". [2]
Choi makes his first appearance in the new Rebirth continuity in the Justice League of America: The Atom one-shot, by Steve Orlando and Andrew MacDonald. His suit is redesigned to resemble Ray Palmer's in the Arrowverse TV shows.
Fictional character biography
Born in Hong Kong, Ryan Choi was a longtime protégé of Ray Palmer who had been corresponding with him through letters. After Palmer's disappearance, Ryan moved to Ivy Town in America to assume his mentor's place on the staff of Ivy University. Following clues left by Palmer, Ryan discovered a "bio-belt", allegedly the size and density-manipulating device used by his predecessor, and became the new Atom with Palmer's apparent blessing. Though taken with the superhero lifestyle, Ryan is a scientist first and foremost and approaches many of his adventures from the perspective of scientific discovery and investigation.
Since taking his mentor's place, Ryan has found himself at the center of a conflict between the forces of science and magic. It has been claimed that the impossible feats performed by Ray Palmer during his superheroic career caused the very fabric of reality to warp in Ivy Town's vicinity, making it a nexus of paranormal activity. Many parties, including the ancient "Cancer God" M'Nagalah and the microscopic aliens known as "the Waiting", consider Ryan a key player in the war and have made attempts to recruit, capture, or kill him. He is advised by, among others, Ivy Town Police Chief Liza Warner (a.k.a. Lady Cop). [3]
As the Atom, Ryan has faced numerous challenges, including the shrinking serial killer Dwarfstar, his strict and disapproving father, and being seduced, kidnapped, and even swallowed alive by the size-changing villainess, Giganta. Through it all, his ingenuity and keen deductive mind have served him in good stead.
Ryan Choi was involved in the search for the missing Ray Palmer, traveling into the restored Multiverse along with Donna Troy, Jason Todd and a Monitor nicknamed "Bob". Literally plucked back to New Earth, he leaves his role of dimension-hopper to Kyle Rayner, returning to defend Ivy Town from a monster invasion. Later he is led to a mistaken belief that Ray Palmer has become an egocentric madman, and Ryan himself may be only a pawn of his mad fantasies. This is later revealed to be a ploy by Ray's old nemesis, Chronos. The All New Atom series ended with issue #25, [4] [5] when Ryan, with some help from the returned Ray Palmer, is able to discern between the truth and the lies fed by Chronos and his new assistant, Lady Chronos, a former sweetheart of Ryan turned to crime. Ryan eventually discovers that Ray Palmer never knew of Choi: instead the bio-belt was a tainted gift from Jia, and the Ray Palmer letters a clever forging by Chronos, meant to force Ryan into accepting the Atom mantle, and taking the blame for the staging menaces sent against the city. However, due to Ryan's ability into sorting out the mess, besting the Chronos couple and restoring Ivy to normalcy, Ray finally gives him his blessing. [6]
Ryan expresses his desire to find a new identity for himself, since Ray, despite giving him his blessing earlier, had resumed using regularly his Atom identity. [7] In Justice League: Cry for Justice #1, Ray and Ryan are seen fighting Killer Moth together, and at the end of the battle both of them show respect towards each other, with Ray asking Ryan to continue using the Atom name.
DC Rebirth
Ryan makes his official debut in the new DC Rebirth continuity as a teenage genius Ivy League college student tutored by Ray Palmer. [14] Palmer reveals his identity as the Atom and enlists Ryan's help in fighting crime, talking to Ray from his lab in a tech support role. [15] One day, after many adventures together, Ray goes missing. A week later, Ryan finds a message from Palmer along with one of his size-changing belts, asking the youth to come find him in the Microverse because he got stuck there when exploring a change in time and space. [16] After receiving another scolding from Dean Plumm, Ryan heads back to the lab, using the bio-belt that Ray gave him to travel there through the Wi-Fi. When he arrives, he is met by Batman and Lobo who are there to recruit Ray Palmer into the new Justice League of America. Discovering that Ray is missing, Batman decides to leave until Lobo asks Ryan if he wrote down various equations to update the bio-belt on a blackboard. Impressed, Lobo decides that Batman should recruit Ryan, despite Batman not wanting to put him in danger. Lobo says it is Ryan's choice, and Ryan joins the JLA and sometime later, heads to Vanity, Oregon, to recruit the Ray into the team. [17]
In the 2025 series Justice League: The Atom Project, Ryan and Ray work to reverse the aftermath of Absolute Power , when several heroes had their powers swapped and some had them transferred to civilians. [18]
